


Not My Problem

by GenKay



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Introspection, Jealousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25669411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GenKay/pseuds/GenKay
Summary: A short introspective from Miguel’s pov through season 2
Comments: 14
Kudos: 14





	Not My Problem

_It’s none of my business. It has nothing to do with me. There is no reason for me to get involved._

Miguel kept telling himself that over and over again every time the urge to interfere hit him. It went against all his instincts to leave this so wrong but it wasn’t his place to do anything. Even if he could’ve – which he couldn’t. However he felt about this, this was not the way to work through it all.

Robby Keene was Johnny Lawrence’s estranged and there was nothing Miguel could or should to do to change any part of that fact.

It’d hurt ofcourse, finding out that Robby Keene was Sensei’s son. It’d felt like betrayal for some reason. And for the longest time, Miguel couldn’t figure out why.

At first, he’d agreed with Hawk. That Sensei had kind of let them down because he was playing favorites with Robby. It was understandable that he’d care more about his son than he did about his students, but the way he had handled it was really unfair to them.

He was the one who’d taught them that winning was all that mattered after all. He’d taught them to not let anything stand in their way to victory, to do whatever it took. And then he suddenly changes his tune just because those lessons had worked against his son? Not just that, he was punishing _them_ for it? How was that fair?

Sure he’d given them what sounded like a reasonable explanation – about being a real badass and being honorable, but Miguel hadn’t bought that. Not at first, atleast. It’d taken Hawk’s mistakes to make him see the truth here.

Demetri was Miguel’s friend too, after all. The first one to really talk to him at school. The first one to accept his offer of friendship. So what if he wasn’t Cobra Kai material? That didn’t make him a loser. Or a pussy. Sure he couldn’t fight, but he always had the guts to speak his mind. And he had always been the voice of reason and caution for Miguel – even if it was a little too cautious for him sometimes. Not all of Miguel’s friends had to be part of Cobra Kai after all.

And sure, he hadn’t liked what Demetri had done, but that was no reason to beat him up. They could’ve talked to him on their own and convinced him to take down that review.

What Hawk had done – taking four guys with him to threaten and beat Demetri up – was not honorable. And it’d cost him. He’d gotten his ass kicked instead and Moon had dumped him. But more than that, it’d cost him his best friend since childhood and it’d cost Miguel a friend too. Miguel wanted to be pissed at him for that, but he figured he’d already learned his lesson. No point in kicking a guy after he was down, after all.

And not like Miguel had the moral high ground here.

He’d done the same thing in trying to pick a fight with Robby and he’d lost Sam because of that. He hadn’t gotten it at first, but he did now. After he saw the same thing happen with Hawk. In light of it all, he was ashamed of how he’d behaved and he knew he had to do better going forward.

That was what Sensei was trying to each them, he realized eventually. Take his fight with Xander, for example. Despite Sensei’s instructions to “kick the pussy in his face”, Miguel had behaved honorably. He hadn’t relied on any cheap tricks to win and after the match was over, he’d given the guy the respect due to a fellow athlete. There had been nothing about his behavior there that gave Johnny any cause for criticism.

But it hadn’t been the same with Robby. Miguel had wanted to humiliate the guy and that wasn’t right. Sensei would’ve been pissed even if Robby hadn’t been his son. He finally understood that now. The lessons were, in fact, in their best interest and Robby being Sensei’s son had nothing to do with it.

But it still felt like a betrayal.

Was it because of the lie itself? That was certainly a part of it.

Sure, Johnny hadn’t lied explicitly. He hadn’t told Miguel that he didn’t have any kids. Miguel had just kind of assumed. But it was still a lie of omission. How could Sensei have kept such a big part of his life from him? They were supposed to be closer than that.

Was that why he’d felt betrayed? Because he’d been mistaken about how Sensei felt about him?

Miguel knew that Johnny didn’t actually owe his students the truth about his personal life. He was allowed to have a private life, after all. Even the fact that he didn’t say anything when they fought Robby at the tournament didn’t really bother Miguel. He knew that if he’d known who Robby was, he would’ve hesitated and that hesitation would’ve been fatal. Johnny had kept the truth from him to protect him and he’d told him to fight honorably because that was the right way to fight. So as his student, Miguel had no reason to expect that detail of his life.

But they were more than that, weren’t they? Atleast, Miguel had thought so. He wasn’t like all the other students. He had a special place both in the dojo and in Sensei’s life.

He was the only one who could just walk into Sensei’s office and tell him if he was doing anything wrong. He was the only one who could knock on his door and hang out at his place for hours. And he was the first one to get the spare key to the dojo. And despite having a whole bunch of students, Sensei still made some extra time for him, to give him some special lessons.

Had that all been just one-sided? With him sharing his life with Johnny and Johnny trying to keep him at an arm’s length?

No, that couldn’t be the case. Johnny had told him about his beef with LaRusso, hadn’t he? And he’d told him the truth about Robby soon after. And in light of what Sensei told him, it made perfect sense why he hadn’t said anything before. Sensei was ashamed – too embarrassed of his failures regarding his son to want to talk about it. But he’d told Miguel all the same – which meant he trusted him. That they were, in fact, as close and Miguel had imagined them.

And yet, that feeling persisted.

Was it because of what this said about Johnny?

He did say that he failed his son from day one, didn’t he? And if he couldn’t be there for his son, could Miguel really expect that he’d be there for him? After all, something bad must have happened between them for things to get here. It was one thing for Robby to be estranged, but going to Johnny’s mortal enemy to learn karate – that wasn’t mere coincidence. That was payback - something meant to hurt Johnny. And it did hurt him. And given the way Sensei just accepted it without fighting back, he must have felt that he deserved it.

So how badly had Johnny screwed up to make his own son want to hurt him like that? And how could Miguel be sure that Johnny wouldn’t do the same with him despite his promises?

Sensei wasn’t perfect – Miguel knew that. He’d made his fair share of mistakes and by his own admission, he was making new ones.

Like that thing with the Valleyfest. Miguel had been so excited about the plan that he hadn’t thought through the consequences. Sure they were getting back at LaRusso for dissing their dojo, but they were promoting Cobra Kai too. There was nothing wrong with that.

Or so he’d thought until he’d seen Sam.

He’d been standing tall and proud on the podium when he’d seen her, her eyes full of anger and hurt. And all his pride had been immediately replaced with guilt. Sure, LaRusso deserved payback, but Sam had done nothing wrong. And they’d ended up screwing with her performance. How could he have done that to her? He wanted to prove to her that he still loved her, that she should forgive him and get back together with him – and instead, he had ended up hurting her even more?

Without even realizing it, he’d screwed up his chances even more.

Did Sensei feel the same way? Had Robby looked at him the same way Sam had looked at Miguel? If he kept screwing up like that, was it a wonder that Robby wanted to hurt him in return?

Miguel firmly pushed those thoughts away. No – that wasn’t right. People made mistakes, sure, but it didn’t mean they should be punished for them forever. That they shouldn’t be given a chance to make it right. The Valleyfest thing wasn’t about Sam. Or Robby. They should’ve realized that, instead of holding that against Miguel or Johnny.

But still, Johnny hadn’t cared about the consequences either. He hadn’t considered how this would affect his son. There was no malice here, but it’d hurt someone he cared about all the same. Couldn’t he make the same mistake with Miguel?

The thought bothered Miguel… but not as much as he expected it to. After all, Johnny had screwed up with him before too. Like how he had brusquely brushed him aside the first time they’d talked. Or how he’d rejected his request to teach him karate. Or how he’d shut things down after Miguel had gotten beat up at the Halloween party. Or how he’d told him that the truth about Robby was none of his business. Or the thousand other times he’d insulted his taste in music or movies or friends.

But none of that mattered because Johnny had made it right straight away. He’d agreed to teach him karate the very next day. He’d begged his mom to let him come back after the beating. He’d introduced Miguel to better music and accepted his friends and told him the truth about Robby.

So even if his Sensei screwed up and disappointed him somehow, it wouldn’t matter as long as he made it right again.

Maybe that was the problem here. As far as Miguel could see, Johnny wasn’t doing anything to try and make things right with Robby and he was worried that that would be him some day.

So why wasn’t Sensei trying harder with Robby? It seemed like he’d given up, but that couldn’t be right. Cobra-Kai never gave up, never took no for an answer and Sensei was a Cobra through and through.

Did Sensei not care about Robby after all?

That could be it, right? After all, just because they were related by blood didn’t make them family. Take Miguel’s own father for example. He had no relationship with the guy and after everything his mom told him about him, he didn’t want one. Miguel didn’t feel like he owed anything to the guy and Sensei must feel the same about Robby.

And seeing who Robby was, it did make sense. The guy was a nasty piece of work. Going to your dad’s enemy to train, trying to bring down his dojo – who did something fucked up like that? No wonder Sensei didn’t want anything to do with the guy. Who would?

Except, he did. Miguel could tell as much from the regret in Johnny’s voice when he’d spoken about Robby. It wasn’t just guilt talking. He wanted a relationship with his son.

It hurt Miguel to see him hurting like that. And it made him want to fix things, to find a way to reconcile them both. He didn’t care about Keene, but he cared about Sensei and after everything Johnny had done for him, if he could return the favor…

But what could he do? He didn’t know the whole story after all. And he knew nothing about Keene’s side of it. He was certain that whatever Sensei did to make Robby hate him so couldn’t be that bad. Sensei didn’t have that in him. Which meant that the problem here was Robby.

That made sense. If Miguel’s dad had been someone like Johnny, he’d have done everything in his power to have a relationship with him, regardless of what his mom said. But Robby wasn’t doing that, was he? Instead, he was too focused on hurting his dad, too focused on trying to bring him down. If only Robby could realize how great Sensei was. If only Miguel could get him to realize that.

Miguel had a plan for that – a plan that started taking shape after the whole dojo-trashing incident.

Someone from Cobra Kai had messed up big time and it was up to all of them to make it right. Johnny would’ve done it himself had he not gotten side-tracked by his friend’s death. So it was upto Miguel now. And he’d already taken the first right step by returning the medal. And for the moment, it looked like Robby had believed him when he said he had nothing to do with it.

They could build things from there, Miguel realized. This rivalry between the dojos was hurting everybody. Friends being at odds with each-others. Relationships destroyed. It could all be resolved if they could get along and he could make the first move with Robby. The guy had offered him a hand up during the tournament after all – so atleast he knew something about honor.

They might just become friends. Well, friend- _lier_ atleast. Miguel had no illusions about liking the guy, but he could put up with him for Sensei’s sake. And then Miguel could talk Sensei up to him, tell him how much he regretted doing whatever he’d done and how much he wanted to make it up to Robby. Sure, Miguel would have to start by apologizing about the tournament, but he could do that much. Even if his plan didn’t work, thing couldn’t be any worse than they were now.

Except, if it did succeed, where would that leave him?

The dynamic had changed between them. At first, Miguel had seen Robby as the intruder in his life – like LaRusso had been in Sensei’s. He’d had some difficult stuff going on – figuring out how to stay with Sam with Sensei hating her dad, trying to find a way to impress Mr. LaRusso without dissing Sensei. And then Robby had walked in and messed it all up by making his move on Sam.

But now it felt like he was the intruder here. Like there was already some complicated stuff going on between Sensei and Robby and Daniel LaRusso and he’d ended up interfering and messing it up somehow.

Was that how Robby saw him? Miguel didn’t know how long he’d been training with LaRusso after all. And if he did help Johnny and Robby reconcile, how would that affect his own relationship with Sensei? Would he still make time for Miguel.

That’s when the horrible thought occurred to him – that he was the replacement here. That he was just a stand-in. Sensei made a lot of mistakes after all – so maybe he didn’t want to make anymore with Robby.

And Miguel was his practice dummy. Sensei was learning how to be a dad with Miguel and he was trying to get all his screw-ups out of the way. And once he had that figured out, he’d go back to Robby and be a great father to him and leave Miguel out in the cold.

The thought had made him pause. And good thing too – as he soon discovered that Robby wasn’t worth it after all.

To make it work, Miguel had convinced himself that he’d been mistaken about Robby. That he wasn’t actually that bad of a guy after all. That he wasn’t actually out to steal his girl and it was Miguel’s own paranoia that had cost him the relationship.

Except he so totally was. That was obvious when they showed up together at the skating rink. Miguel tried to be nice about it, hoping they were their asjust friends – but the way they looked at each-other and held hands, well, there was no doubt in his mind about it now.

Not to mention, the guy was a bad influence on Sam. Sam was a sweet girl – she’d have never pushed Tory like that out of the blue for no reason at all. No matter how much she disliked her. Not unless she had someone whispering in her ear, egging her on. And Robby was the only one there, wasn’t he?

And then there was what he’d found out at the party – that Robby had lied about Miguel returning the medal of honor as well. And letting Sam drink like that and leaving her alone like that – what kind of boyfriend did that?

Sure Miguel was with Tory now, but he still cared about Sam and Robby clearly wasn’t good enough for her. He probably wasn’t actually interested in her anyway and dating LaRusso’s daughter was yet another way for him to get back at his dad. 

So yeah, while Miguel wanted to intervene and make things better for Sensei, letting things be was actually the right thing here. The smarter choice. Sooner or later, Sensei would realize that Robby wasn’t worth all the remorse and heartbreak. He was an asshole and they were all better off without him.

Now, that wasn’t something Miguel could actually tell Johnny – but he could show him, couldn’t he? By being the son Johnny never had. He knew he could be the son Johnny deserved, just like he knew he could be the boyfriend Sam deserved. Because Robby certainly didn’t deserve either of them and they’d both see that eventually.

So there was no reason for Miguel to intervene at all. Whatever relationship Robby had with his father, it was on its last legs already. And it’d die a natural death if he just let it. Sure that would hurt Sensei - but that would be better than whatever Robby would put him through later. There was no reason to even try and save this.

After all, it wasn’t like it was going to end up hurting Miguel in any way...


End file.
